The Presidential Library’s rare materials tell about the construction of the Alexander Column

The Alexander Column was inaugurated on September 11 (August 30 old style), 1834. Nicholas I ordered to erect it in honor of the victory of his elder brother Alexander I over Napoleon.

The column, built by the architect Auguste Montferrand, was supposed to compete with the Vendome Column, installed in Paris in honor of Napoleon's victories, that is, exceed 44.3 meters. This was achieved as the total height of the monument was 47.5 meters.

Two years before the opening, the columns were finished, it was installed in its place: “A terrible rib, courageously torn by the hands of the Russians from the ridge of the mountains of granite Finland, in the Puterlac tract, was giganticly transferred on the ramen of Russia, and on August 30, 1832 was set up for surprise peace on the square in front of the palace of Russian emperors", - wrote the translator and writer Ivan Butovsky in the book About the opening of the monument to Emperor Alexander the First (1834).

The installation was preceded by a real labor feat of Russian engineers, craftsmen and workers in cutting out of granite rock and delivering the column itself and stones for its foundation to St. Petersburg.

This is described in the publication Monument to Alexander the Blessed (1833).

Work began in June 1830. “… From 300 to 400 and more Russian workers were engaged in this work continuously, most of them from the Olonets province, hired contractors, as well as a number of Finns from the surrounding villages. The work was carried out since then and throughout the winter, from 1830 to 1831, in severe frosts and blizzards, on an open from the sea and a high place, and in the summer of 1831 shift workers were engaged day and night, to bring the matter to an end as soon as possible. sultry days, and sometimes in heavy rains ... <...> Carving mountains with human hands is the most difficult part of the work in physical terms ..." - continue the authors of the publication, giving a description of all the details of this hard work.

After the completion of the "cutting", it was necessary to separate the blanks for the obelisk and the foundation from the rock, for which powder charges, wooden scaffolding, birch and iron beams, brushwood bedding and many other devices were used.

Finally, “on the arrival on Saturday, September 19 Mr. Montferrand in the Puterlac quarry, all the workers ... were put by the contractor, by means of the signal given by the bell, to the assigned places, and the community an hour after his arrival, after a seven-minute action, was safely separated from the mountain at 6 o'clock in the evening" , - says the book.

Then the cut-out column had to be turned on its side, which was fraught with great difficulties and dangers.

Now the column had to be delivered to St. Petersburg. According to the authors of the book, in advance, “during the winter from 1830 to 1831, the construction of a special, solid pier was started, in fact, for the load of the Alexander Column from the place of breakage to the ship, which was purposely arranged for this case in St. Petersburg ... flat-bottomed, 155 feet long, 42 feet wide...". While loading the convoy onto this ship - the “Saint Nicholas” boat with a carrying capacity of more than 1,000 tons - it was almost dropped into the water. And yet this bulk was safely delivered to St. Petersburg.

At the same time, both the soldiers and the architect himself feared that the column being installed could collapse. The fact is that the Alexandrian pillar was not attached to the pedestal in any way, but was held on it only due to the force of gravity and its own weight. Therefore, Petersburgers preferred not to walk along the Palace Square next to the column, fearing that it would fall on their heads. To convince everyone of the stability and safety of his grandiose structure, Montferrand unswervingly, until his death, walked around the column every evening. Gradually, both residents and guests of the city ceased to fear the fall of the monument.

The result of the "great and difficult business" is summed up in the book Monument to Alexander the Blessed: "Honor and glory to the Russian people! Honor and glory to the artist who had the idea to offer such a mass for the monument to the great, only sovereign and gave the Russians a reason and opportunity to triumph over all the difficulties associated with this feat! "

The history of the creation and the celebration of the opening of the Alexander Column is illustrated in the materials from the collection of the Presidential Library, which are available on its portal, containing testimonies of contemporaries and eyewitnesses.